July 2006
Next club meeting Monday 5th September 2006.
Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church. Entrance off Abbey Square.
Meeting commences at 7.00pm.
July Meeting.
The July meeting was a talk by John Roberts-Lewis on "East India Coinage Outside India"
The East India Company was granted a charter in 1600 and its first voyage was in 1601, which carried £20,742 for trading. Some was in specie, some in Spanish dollars (the bulk) but some (approx. 8000) was in the form of testerns (new coinage struck at the Tower Mint with the hope of replacing the ubiquitous Spanis Dollar or 8 Reales). All of these bore the mintmark o for 1600 and in denominations of 8,4,2,and 1 testern (equal to 8,4,2 and 1 Real).
The first expedition made contact with Sumatra and North East Java. The Dutch were already established in this area, although their VOC (Venerable Ostindie Company) was not founded till 1604. The Dutch defended their interests vigorously even murdering British traders and sailors, to the consternation of the British who expected gratitude for assistance rendered to the Dutch in their war of Independence against Spanish rule. Twenty-one trips were made in the 17th Century – on one Captain Keeling discovered Keeling Island. St Helena was established as the main stepping off point for Eastern voyages and so was administered by the EIC, hence the token halfpenny issued in 1821.
Early voyages were quite close to piracy. The First British (EIC) base on South Sumatra was established at Ben Coolan (there were also bases in India but that is outside the scope of this talk although there was a great deal of coinage struck there for EIC) but later production was switched to the Heaton mint.
The earliest coins used the EIC emblem eg. Balemark or initials on one side – Arabic inscriptions on other. These were copper coins mainly in denominations of 4,2, and 1 Keping also some silver Rupees and fractions – first at Fort Marlboro then during the Napoleonic Wars at Dutch colonies seized (Holland sided with Napoleon) .
Conversion factors at the time were approximately 400 Kepings or 4 Sukus to the Spanish Dollar which was more or less on a par with 2 Rupees.
The first machine made coins were produced in 1786 by Matthew Boulton in Birmingham, consisting of 4, 2, and 1 Keping. One EIC Captain, Francis Lightfoot, married theRajah of Kedah’s daughter and got Penang as dowry. EIC extended in Malay peninsula because he sold Penang to the EIC but as part of the deal became Governor of Penang. $ ½ ,$ ¼ and $ 1/10 coins were struck in India and shipped out.
In 1804 well struck copper 4,2 and 1 Kepings were struck at the Soho mint and tin coins were struck locally with GL (Governor Lee) and GF (Governor Farquehar).
The EIC built its own ships from 1812, mostly 1000 to 1200 tons and armed to defend themselves. Much of the trade was with China but China always insisted on ¾ of any payment to be in silver. This resulted in a shortage of silver, which in turn led to trade in opium, which ultimately led to the opium wars.
Both the Seychelles and Mauritius (formerly Dutch) were ceded to Britain after the Napoleonic wars in 1814 and used British coinage. In Java, British struck Duits (Dutch currency) in copper and tin in Java with a ‘B’, also silver rupees in Surabaya 1815-1816 for Batavia. Mr. Roberts-Lewis ended his talk by showing the St. Helena 25p with the EIC trading ship.
Many thanks to John Roberts-Lewis for an entertaining talk.
Club Subscriptions.
Will members yet to renew their subscription please see David at the next meeting or send same to the club secretary. Membership cards will be sent shortly to paid-up members.
Summer Social - Visit to the National Museum Cardiff Wednesday 9th August
Future Events.
Jurys Hotel 16-22 great Russell St., 9th September
Birmingham Coin Fair. Sunday 13th August at the National Motorcycle Museum, Bickenhill.
Past years